We are writing to inform you of proposed changes to the UKA rule book that would impact young athlete age categories, and to let you know how you may have your say in influencing these important changes proposed for our sport.

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The changes have been proposed by The Home Country’s Athletic Federations, which represents England, Welsh, Scottish & NI Athletics and will be submitted to the UKA Rules Group who will decide whether or not to adopt the rule change for future competition . The Rules Group will look at the HCAFs’ proposal and review this in the light of what members (all of us) think about it.

England Athletics have opened a consultation on the subject – and you can provide your point of view by responding to their questionnaire here:   Age Group Consultation process – England Athletics (note this survey closes on Monday 23^rd October).

But more importantly, you can submit a formal response directly to the Rules Group  rules@uka.org.uk by Tuesday 31^st October 2023 using the attached template

We have attached a presentation from the HCAF that gives an overview of their proposal, and the reasoning behind it, which is to remove the perceived dual pressure of academic exams in Year 11 & Year 13 and being top of age group for competition. They argue that more young athletes would be encouraged to stay within the sport if they were not sitting GCSEs when they reached top year of the U17, and A’ levels when some athletes are top of U20 (U20 stretches beyond school age for those athletes born between January and the end of August).

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They are proposing to change the club competition age groups as follows:

School Year	Current age Group (club)	Current age Group (school)	Proposed age group (club)	Proposed age group (school)
Year 4	Under 11		Under 10
Year 5			Under 12
Year 6	Under 13
Year 7		Minor (U13)	Under 14	Minor (U13)
Year 8	Under 15	Junior (U15)		Junior (U15)
Year 9			Under 16
Year 10	Under 17	Inter (U17)		Inter (U17)
Year 11			Under 18
Year 12	Under 20 (includes athletes still aged 19 at 31st Dec)	Senior (U20)		Senior (U20)
Year 13			Under 20

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As you will see, whereas club and school age groups currently align, under the new proposal, athletes will be in one age group for club and another age group for schools competition.

This poses a significant complexity to training in the technical disciplines as throws weights and hurdles heights and track lengths will differ across school and club competition:

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School Year	Male			Female
	Discipline Impacted	Club	School	Discipline Impacted	Club	School
Year 7 Club: U14 School: Minor (U13)	Javelin Hurdles	500g 80m &76cm	400g 75m & 76cm	Hurdles	75m & 68cm	70m & 68cm
Year 8 Club: U14 School: Junior (U15)	Shot Discus Hammer Javelin Hurdles	3kg 1kg 3kg 500g 80m & 76cm	4kg 1.25kg 4kg 600g 80m & 84cm	Shot Discus Hammer Javelin Hurdles	2.72kg 0.75kg 2.72kg 400g 75m & 68cm	3kg 1kg 3kg 500g 75m & 76cm
Year 9 Club: U16 School: Junior (U15)	Hurdles	100m & 84cm	80m & 84cm	Hurdles	80m &76cm	75m & 76cm
Year 10 Club: U16 School: Inter (U17)	Shot Discus Hammer Javelin Hurdles	4kg 1.25kg 4kg 600g 100m & 84cm	5kg 1.5kg 5kg 700g 100m & 91cm	No impact
Year 11 Club: U18 School: Inter (U17)	Hurdles	110m &91cm	100m & 91cm	Hurdles	100m & 76cm	80m & 76cm
Year 12 Club: U18 School: Senior (U20)	Shot Discus Hammer Javelin Hurdles	5kg 1.5kg 5kg 700g 110m &91cm	6kg 1.75kg 6kg 800g 110m & 99cm	Shot Hammer Javelin Hurdles	3kg 3kg 500g 100m & 76cm	4kg 4kg 600g 100m & 84cm

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Note that ESAA are a separate organisation and may or may not choose to align School age groups, but have not communicated either way thus far, so it cannot be assumed that they would.

If the proposed changes are accepted into the UKA rules for competition, we would expect them to come into affect after September 2024.

Hopefully we have been able to simplify the impact on athletes in this email, but do ask your coach if you’re not sure how this would impact you. Cross Country athletes should speak to Westbury coaches to understand the implications for Cross Country.

Thanks

Yate AC Committee